(Melting) Ice, Ice, Baby
Steven L. Taylor
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Tuesday, August 21, 2012
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13 comments
Via the BBC: Arctic sea ice set to hit record low
Arctic sea ice looks set to hit a record low by the end of the month, according to satellite data.
Scientists at the US National Snow and Ice Data Center said data showed that the sea ice extent was tracking below the previous record low, set in 2007.
A map and a graph at the link.
About Steven L. Taylor
Steven L. Taylor is a Professor of Political Science and a College of Arts and Sciences Dean. His main areas of expertise include parties, elections, and the institutional design of democracies. His most recent book is the co-authored
A Different Democracy: American Government in a 31-Country Perspective. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas and his BA from the University of California, Irvine. He has been blogging since 2003 (originally at the now defunct Poliblog).
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The rate of melting is nothing less than extreme. All ice with a thickness of 6 meters or more is now extinct in the arctic, meaning ice-free conditions for longer periods each year, which amplifies the warming. One of the positive feedbacks we were warned about twenty years ago.
Bu remember, kids, if we so much as close 1 coal plant, baby Jesus will cry. Or something.
Granted, going forward what the Chinese do will matter even more than what we do. But still, this is ridiculous. The GOP flat-out rejects the science, while the Democrats are scared of mentioning it.
@Ben Wolf:
And one of the great fears is that all melting, and the subsquent infusion of massive amounts of fresh water into the Atlantic, will affect the North Atlantic/Gulf Stream currents — and not in a good way.
And Greenland is getting darker, which will only make it’s melting problem worse.
Good thing climate change is a hoax and we don’t need to do anything about it.
We need Todd Akin to let us know if this is a legitimate climate change related melting?
“Cause you know know that the planet has ways of shutting that whole thing down.
@Rob in CT:
Can we get an Amen?
AMEN!
Also, a coastal city in N Carolina (I forget which) passed an ordinance that the city planning and zoning commission can use ONLY historical data in it’s predictions for future sea levels.
@OzarkHillbilly:
Actually it’s a proposed state-wide statute. To my knowledge it has yet to pass (or even come up for a vote):
http://www.newsobserver.com/2012/05/28/2096124/coastal-nc-counties-fighting-sea.html
I heard an interview with a corn farmer. He rejected global warming, and took the drought which killed his crop as natural variation. I found that sad.
(Bad weather is a gamble, a game of odds. Climate change does not make the weather in any given year or any given place a sure thing but it does load the dice. It makes extremes more likely.)
@john personna:
It’s a *possible* cause, but still not a conclusive one last time I checked. Right now the sample time is far too short to tell.
Trying to link climate change and weather is still a pretty tricky thing to talk about for a variety of reasons. Some of the linkages are tenuous at best. In other cases the measures we’ve used in the past may not work — i.e. my understanding is that the average intensity of hurricanes (measured traditional in terms of wind speed) has not greatly increased, nor necessarily have their sheer number, however the amount of average rainfall in hurricanes has as they appear to be taking on greater amounts of water due to a warmer climate.
The ‘northwest passage’ is now fairly regularly used for commercial shipping. Couldn’t find a link quickly but not too long ago saw an estimate of the tonnage carried through there in the summer of ’11 and it was surprising to me how large the number was. And of interest, the Canadian gov’t claims the passage as it’s ‘internal waterway’. Think what changes we’d be experiencing if there actually WAS anthropogenic global warming!
@mattb:
I said he rejected global warming. Full stop.
Greetings:
Don’t worry, guys, I’m sure President Obama will fix it all in his next term.